Interesting Tidbits: 1736 - Peoples revolt due to increase in gin/brandy tax. Gin was popularised in England following the accession of William of Orange in 1688. Gin provided an alternative to French brandy at a time of both political and religious conflict between Britain and France. Many people overconsumed and the city had a virtual epidemic of extreme drunkenness. The extreme consumption provoked moral outrage and a legislative backlash that some compare to the modern drug wars. Economic protectionism was a major factor in beginning the Gin Craze. As the price of food dropped and income grew, consumers suddenly had the opportunity to spend excess funds on liquor. By 1721, however, many were already decrying gin as the principal cause of all the vice & debauchery committed among the inferior sort of people. The British government tried a number of times to stop the flow of gin. The 1736 Gin Act taxed retail sales at a rate of 20 shillings a gallon on spirits and required licensees to take out a £50 annual licence to sell gin, a fee equivalent to about £7,000 today. The aim was to effectively prohibit the trade by making it economically unfeasible. Only two licences were ever taken out. The trade became illegal, consumption dipped but then continued to rise and the law was effectively repealed in 1743 following mass law-breaking and violence (particularly towards informers who were paid £5 to reveal the whereabouts of illegal gin shops). 1830 – Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published. 1830 – The first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicotts Mills, Maryland. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) was not the first railroad in the U.S., but it was the first common carrier railroad and the first to offer scheduled freight and passenger service to the public. The most important U.S. seaports in the early 1800s were Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston. Baltimore had an advantage in being farther inland than the others, located almost at the head of navigation on Chesapeake Bay, the estuary of the Susquehanna River. New York gained an advantage in 1825 with the opening of the Erie Canal, permitting navigation as far as Lake Erie, and in 1826 the commonwealth of Pennsylvania chartered a system of canals to link Philadelphia with Pittsburgh. Baltimore responded to the competition of the other cities by chartering the B&O Railroad on February 28, 1827. The B&O was to build a railroad from Baltimore to a suitable point on the Ohio River. 1844 – Samuel Morse sent the message What hath God wrought (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland to inaugurate the first telegraph line. In 1843 the U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 to fund an experimental telegraph line from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. By 1 May 1844, the line had been completed from the U.S. Capitol to Annapolis Junction in Maryland. On 24 May 1844, after the line was completed, Morse made the first public demonstration of his telegraph by sending a message from the Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad outer depot (now the B&O Railroad Museum) in Baltimore. The Morse-Vail telegraph was quickly deployed in the following two decades. Morse failed to properly credit Vail for the powerful electromagnets used in his telegraph. The original Morse design, without the relay or the intensity and quantity electromagnets invented by Vail, only worked to a distance of 40 feet / 12 m. 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet / 486.3 m, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges. While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained an injury to his foot, from which he developed a tetanus infection and died. His 32-year-old son Washington Roebling took charge of the project. Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870. This condition, first called caisson disease by the project physician Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within the caissons. After Roeblings debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the construction firsthand, his wife Emily Warren Roebling stepped in and provided the written link between her husband and the engineers on site. Under her husbands guidance, Emily studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction. She spent the next 11 years helping to supervise the bridges construction. 1899 - The first auto repair shop opened (Boston). 1915 - Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations on a phonograph. 1928 - Umberto Nobile flew an airship (the Italia) over North Pole again. However, the airship crashed and only part of the crew survived to be rescued. 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. Todays birthday crew: 1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. 1868 – Charlie Taylor, American mechanic built the first aircraft engine used by the Wright brothers and was a vital contributor of mechanical skills in the building and maintaining of early Wright engines and airplanes. Initially, Taylor was hired to fix bicycles, but increasingly took over running of the bicycle business as the Wright brothers spent more time on their aeronautical pursuits. When it became clear that an off-the-shelf engine with the required power-to-weight ratio was not available in the U.S. for their first engine-driven Flyer, the Wrights turned to Taylor for the job. He designed and built the aluminum water-cooled engine in only six weeks, based partly on rough sketches provided by the Wrights. The cast aluminum block and crankcase weighed 152 pounds / 69 kg. The Wrights needed an engine with at least 8 horsepower / 6.0 kW. The engine that Taylor built produced 12. Taylor became a leading mechanic in the Wright Company after it was formed in 1909. 1879 – H.B. Reese, American candymaker, created Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. 1925 – Carmine Infantino, American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000. Infantino began his career as an inker for Timely Comics, the forerunner of Marvel Comics, drawing Human Torch and Angel stories before landing at DC Comics. Infantinos long association with the Flash began with The Secret City a story in All-Flash #31 (Oct.-Nov. 1947). He additionally became a regular artist of the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Justice Society of America. In 1956, DC editor Julius Schwartz assigned writer Robert Kanigher and artist Infantino to the companys first attempt at reviving superheroes: an updated version of the Flash. Infantino designed the now-classic red uniform with yellow detail, and he drew on his design abilities to create a new visual language to depict the Flashs speed, making the figure a red and yellow blur. The eventual success of the new, science-fiction-oriented Flash heralded the wholesale return of superheroes, and the beginning of the Silver Age of comics. Infantino drew Flash of Two Worlds, a landmark[11] story published in The Flash #123 (Sept. 1961) that introduced Earth-Two, and more generally the concept of the multiverse, to DC Comics. Infantino continued to work on his other, most notably Adam Strange in Mystery in Space. In 1964, Schwartz was made responsible for reviving the faded Batman titles. Writer John Broome and artist Infantino jettisoned the sillier aspects that had crept into the series (such as Ace the Bathound, and Bat-Mite) and gave the New Look Batman and Robin a more detective-oriented direction and sleeker draftsmanship that proved a hit combination. In late 1966/early 1967, Infantino was tasked with designing covers for the entire DC line. Stan Lee learned this and approached Infantino with a $22,000 offer to move to Marvel. Publisher Jack Liebowitz confirmed that DC could not match the offer, but could promote Infantino to the position of art director. Initially reluctant, Infantino accepted what Liebowitz posed as a challenge, and stayed with DC. When DC was sold to Kinney National Company, Infantino was promoted to editorial director. He started by hiring new talent, and promoting artists to editorial positions. In 1970, Infantino signed on Marvel Comics star artist and storytelling collaborator Jack Kirby to a DC Comics contract. Kirby created several series for DC including, a new incarnation of the Sandman before returning to freelancing for Marvel in 1975. Infantino wrote or contributed to two books about his life and career: The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino (Vanguard Productions, ISBN 1-887591-12-5), and Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur (Tomorrows Publishing, ISBN 1-60549-025-3). 1949 – Jim Broadbent, English actor known to Harry Potter fans as Horace Slughorn. Broadbent has also played many roles familiar throughout fandom. He played The Shy Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief parody Doctor Who sketch, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. He voiced Madame Gasket from the 2005 film Robots. He played Don Speekingleesh in The Queen of Spains Beard in the first series of The Black Adder in 1983. He also played the role of Prince Albert in Blackadders Christmas Carol, first broadcast in 1988. He joined Rowan Atkinson in his Spider-Man spoof Spider-Plant Man, as a disgruntled Batman, jealous of Spider-Plant Mans success. He appeared in the original radio production of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, playing the character Vroomfondel. He played Dean Charles Stanforth in the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He played Mother in the 1998 film The Avengers. And has been in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). 1960 – Doug Jones, American former contortionist and actor best known to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fans for his various roles playing non-human characters, often in heavy makeup, in films and television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pans Labyrinth and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Happy birthday guys!
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 12:26:50 +0000
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